


i am healthy, i am whole (but i have poor impulse control)

by MercyBuckets



Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Avalanches, Blizzards & Snowstorms, Dealing With Feelings Badly, Forgiveness, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hypothermia, Peril, Sarcasm, Serious Injuries, Team as Family, That Get Better, Trapped, Trust, Trust Issues, hypoxia, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-09 01:29:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8870497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBuckets/pseuds/MercyBuckets
Summary: Three definitely does NOT forgive Six and he's also not interested in owing the guy. Unfortunately, life has other plans.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Themisto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Themisto/gifts).



> For Themisto feat. life saving, hurt/comfort and hypothermia. I hope you enjoy reading it as much I enjoyed writing it.

“Three? Three!”

 

Three groans. He hopes that whatever he did last night was worth it, because his head feels like shit warmed over.

 

“Come on, Three, wake up.”

 

Typical Six, won’t leave him be. Wait—

 

“What are you doin’ in my room?” Three growls.

 

God, his throat feels like he’s swallowing fire. What exactly did he do last night?

 

“Not in your room,” replies Six evenly. “You remember the cave in?”

 

Cave in? Three searches his memories and comes up with a whole lotta headache. The last thing he remembers clearly is trying to get Two to let him go with the Kid instead of Six. Heck, he woulda been happier with the Android if it came down to it, but Two insisted. Used her big-boss-voice too, the kind even he didn’t mess with.

 

“No,” he says. “My head hurts like a sonovabitch. Whadda’d you do?”

 

“I’m not sure if I’m flattered you think I’d be able to rig an avalanche or offended that you think I’d try to kill you with an avalanche,” says Six.

 

“Yeah,” says Three. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. Why waste explosives when a bullet to the back is just as good.”

 

Six doesn’t even flinch. Damn, why is that guy is so hard to rile up? Three needs a distraction from his pounding head and the loose snow walls that look like they could collapse at any moment.

 

“Radio’s out,” says Six. His voice doesn’t change a bit. He could be commenting on the quality of dinner or their impending death by suffocation and sound exactly the same.

 

Suffocation. Three’s chest tightens almost imperceptibly. Are the walls actually closing in or is it in his head?

 

 _No reason it can’t be both_ , his mind supplies helpfully.

 

“Way I figure, we’ll probably suffocate before we freeze,” says Six. “But I can’t be sure.”

 

“How ‘bout you shut your traitorous mouth about suffocation,” snaps Three.

 

That one gets him a look that he can’t decipher. Unfortunately, while he’s trying to figure out what Six could possibly be thinking, Three also notices a spreading dark patch by Six’s shoulder. Doesn’t that figure.

 

“You gonna bleed all over me now, too?” he asks, feeling inexplicably angry.

 

Six looks mildly annoyed that Three managed to notice the blood.

 

 _Ha, take that_.

 

“It’s not bleeding that badly,” says Six. “We’ll suf–– well, blood loss is not our biggest worry.”

 

Huh, turns out that avoiding the word ‘suffocation’ just makes Three think of it more.

 

“I can hear the word suff–– suffocate without losing my shit,” he snaps.

 

Six doesn’t comment on the stutter, which only pisses Three off more. Instead he maneuvers carefully across their small snowy cave until he’s sitting next to Three.

 

“Stay on your own side,” says Three. It comes out whiny and hoarse.

 

“Don’t much want to freeze even if you seem to prefer it,” says Six.

 

His voice shakes just a little bit and Three wonders if it’s the cold or something else. Six’s wound looks even worse close up. His coat is streaked with blood and ice crystals. Three has a flash of someone pushing him out of the way as the the world explodes in white. That fucker better not have saved his life again. That would just be the icing on the cake of this craptastic day. Ha, icing, like that sounds like ice. Which is funny because they’re freezing to death. Fuck.

 

“How’d you even manage to get cut up in the snow anyway?” Three asks.

 

“Ice,” says Six.

 

The tremor is more pronounced now. It could be the cold, Three’s teeth are chattering, but it’s probably not. It’s not like it got any colder in the past minute than it was before.

 

Three opens his mouth to inform Six that he has no interest in being trapped in a hole with a dead body.

 

“Why’d you do it?”

 

He snaps his mouth shut.

 

Six looks straight at him. They both know Three’s not talking about the cave-in.

 

“Thought I was doing the right thing,” he says.

 

Three can see the lines of pain on his face now.

 

“Thought the same thing myself a few times,” says Three.

 

That was not what he was planning on saying at all. Fucking hypoxia.

 

Six blinks slowly.

 

“Better not to worry about right and wrong,” says Three slurring. “Let Two do that. She ain’t half bad.”

 

“Can’t let it go,” says Six. “Did that in th’ army an’ I can’t do it again.”

 

“Don’ know why you gotta come aroun’ and muck ev’rything up with your moralizin’,” says Three.

His tongue feels like it’s been turned inside out.

 

“Can’t help it,” says Six. “Don’t want to anyway.”

 

“Saved m’life again,” slurs Three. “Admit it.”

 

“Maybe I did,” says Six, barely above a whisper.

 

“Fucker,” says Three and passes out.

* * *

 

When Three next wakes up, he’s not dead, or cold. He’s lying on a bed in the infirmary on the Raza.

 

“Where’s Six,” he croaks knowing that someone will be in there watching over them.

 

“Why? You decide to forgive him yet?” asked Two. Her voice is light and sarcastic but her shoulders are tight. She’s tired.

 

“No,” says Three.

 

When he doesn’t elaborate, Two sighs.

 

“He’ll be fine. It was bad but he’ll be okay in a few weeks.”

 

“Good,” says Three. “Be a shame if he died before I could exact my revenge.”

 

Two looks at him sharply and he winces internally. It must have been really bad.

 

“How’d you find us?” he asks, changing the subject.

 

“Five and the Android rigged something up,” she says. “The Android and I dug you out. You were actually lucky. You wouldn’t have survived that blizzard if you hadn’t been buried.”

 

“Didn’t feel lucky,” grumbled Three.

 

“Two experienced severe frostbite on her feet in the rescue,” says the Android entering somewhere behind him. “Without her nanites, she would have lost the use of her toes.”

 

Three looks at Two hard.

 

“Like I said,” she says. “Lucky.”

 

Three pushes himself up on stiff elbows before reluctantly allowing Two to drag him the rest of the way to sitting.

 

“Not an invalid,” he says.

 

Two gives him an unimpressed look.

 

“Never said you were,” she says, but then she ruins it by adjusting the bed so that he can lean back against it.

 

He glares at her more out of habit than malice.

 

“Did you need me?” she asks the Android.

 

“There is a non-urgent call for you in your quarters,” says the Android. “I thought you might like to know.”

 

Two nods.

 

“Five is finishing some repairs on the bridge,” she says to Three. “Can you manage down here until she’s done?”

 

“Can I?” says Three snorting. “You think the Kid would be better than me in an emergency?”

It’s all bluster. They both know exactly how good Five can be in an emergency, but it’s familiar and Two laughs.

 

“If I come back and the infirmary is on fire, I’m shooting you,” she says as she leaves with the Android.

 

With Two gone, Three’s gaze immediately finds Six in the back of the infirmary. The other man looks terrible. His dark skin is ashen, like someone drained the life out of him. His back and shoulder are swathed in white bandages and there’s an IV of some sort in his good arm.

Well, fuck.

 

Three pushes himself out of the narrow bed and staggers over to Six, using the counter to keep himself upright. There’s a small stool next to Six’s bed. It wobbles when Three collapses onto it. It’s too low and his knees are bunched uncomfortably but at least he isn’t standing up anymore.

 

“You can wake up anytime now,” he says to Six. “No call for sleeping on the job.”

 

Six doesn’t even twitch. Asshole.

 

Three wonders if slapping him would be bad. Probably. Two definitely wouldn’t go for it.

He decides to talk instead.

 

“Two wanted to know if I forgave you,” he says.

 

Six, unsurprisingly, does not respond.

 

“I don’t, in case you’re wondering,” continues Three. “In fact, you’re in even more shit than before.”

 

God his knees hurt. Five must have been here because the stool is sized for midgets or something.

 

“Not only did you betray us,” says Three. “But now you keep on _saving_ me. What is _with_ that?”

 

A machine whirrs near Three’s head.

 

“I’m telling you right now,” he says. “This doesn’t change anything.”

 

Fuck. Why is it so hard to stay mad at an unconscious guy?

 

Something else starts beeping but not in an urgent way, at least he hopes not.

 

“Doesn’t it?” says Six without opening his eyes.

 

His voice sounds even worse than Three’s did.

 

“Motherfuck!” shouts Three, almost tipping the stool over.

 

Six’s lips twitch.

 

“Laugh it up, asshole,” says Three. “I’m gonna get even when you least expect it.”

 

“How many times I have I saved your life now?” says Six.

 

Three growls. That fucker isn’t fooling anyone with his innocent act. He is totally doing this on purpose.

 

“That’s what I thought,” says Six.

 

“I’m not saying thank you,” grinds out Three.

 

“Didn’t expect you to,” says Six. “It’s enough knowing you owe me.”

 

Three sputters. “I do not,” he says indignantly. He tries to get up but his knees refuse to unbend so he is forced to content himself with crossing his arms.

 

“I’m glad you didn’t die in that avalanche,” says Three. “Freezing to death is way too good for you.”

 

Six smiles like he knows something that Three doesn’t.

 

“Sure beats suffocating,” he says, lips twitching.

 

“Fuck off,” says Three without any real heat behind it.

 

Goddamnit! He’s smiling too. Typical fucking Six.


End file.
